Field of Invention
The invention relates to a mounting device for replacing a gripper tip of a gripper finger for a robot system.
Background Information
Gripper fingers for robot systems have long been known in the prior art in many different variants. The known gripper fingers usually comprise two gripper jaws, each with one gripper tip. The gripper jaws are, for example, fastened movably to linear guides and constructed movably towards and away from each other. As a result, also the two gripper tips attached thereto can be moved exactly towards and away from each other in such a manner that objects can specifically be grasped or put down again. Such gripper systems are known to the man skilled in the art under the term “parallel-grippers”. Such systems for grasping workpieces are for example known from EP 0 2231 B1, EP 0 993 916 B1 or EP 2 548 706 A1.
There are robots, so called “buckling arm robots” described for example in WO 02/086637 A1” whose application is much more flexible and which are often used advantageously in particular for mobile robot systems.
Nowadays gripper fingers are not only mechanical gripping tools, but highly complex systems which can often contain sensors of different types, such as optical cameras, ultrasonic sensors or other acoustic sensors, such as microphones, or thermal sensors, force sensors etc. By such sensors a correspondent robot system can “feel” its environment with the gripper fingers and detect the properties of its environment which are essential for the function of the robot system.
Thus, such robot system can for example recognize independently whether an object to be grasped is rather a soft object, such as a plastic bottle, or rather a hard object, such as a glass bottle and it can then adjust independently and flexibly a force necessary for the gripper fingers to grasp the object to an optimum value.